After reading this forum last season and getting some tips on rig tuning and reducing weather helm I decided that I had too much rake in my mast. Armed with the knowledge I gained here I tuned my standing rigging, which basically meant loosening the shrouds and backstay, tightening the forestay very tight, and then tightening the shrouds (to a lesser extent than the forestay) firmly and evenly.
My forestay is now tighter than it's ever been, I can feel the difference in reduced weather helm, but I feel like my mast still has too much rake. I realize that Z-spar masts have a natural curve to them, but I still feel like mine has more than it should.
In the pictures below my forestay is very tight and the shrouds and back stack are only tight enough to have the slack taken out of them. In the 2nd pic, mine is the mast closest on the right (took this one as a reference to other boats with straight masts).
My questions are as follows:
1) is this amount of rake normal for a Z-spar mast and
2) is it possible to overtighten the forestay, even as performance increases?
My forestay is now tighter than it's ever been, I can feel the difference in reduced weather helm, but I feel like my mast still has too much rake. I realize that Z-spar masts have a natural curve to them, but I still feel like mine has more than it should.
In the pictures below my forestay is very tight and the shrouds and back stack are only tight enough to have the slack taken out of them. In the 2nd pic, mine is the mast closest on the right (took this one as a reference to other boats with straight masts).
My questions are as follows:
1) is this amount of rake normal for a Z-spar mast and
2) is it possible to overtighten the forestay, even as performance increases?